What is the Side Conversations API?

Side conversations were introduced in June of 2018, and customers have been using them to start conversations with vendors, partners, and other departments directly from their tickets. We’re excited to introduce an API for side conversations that enables these conversations to be created programmatically, which will, hopefully, unlock even more interesting use cases. The API provides most of the functionality available in the UI and also introduces an incremental export endpoint that provides all of your side conversation data for archiving or analysis.

Here are the basics of what’s available in the side conversations API:

Conversations

Conversations are anchored to the tickets they belong to. You’ll be able to list the side conversations on a ticket, as well as create new side conversations within the ticket.

Replies

Once a side conversation has been created, subsequent messages within it are considered replies. With the API, you’ll be able to create and retrieve replies for existing conversations.

Closing/Reopening

Side conversations provide a mechanism for indicating that a conversation is considered done, which can be used as a trigger condition. With the API you’ll be able to mark conversations done as well as reopen them.

Email vs. Slack

With the introduction of Slack for Side Conversations, you can now create conversations for the appropriate channel. The API will let you indicate the type you’d like to start and the corresponding email recipients or Slack channel it should be delivered to.

Incremental Export

The incremental export endpoint will let you retrieve all side conversation data for an indicated period of time. You’ll be able to use this data for archiving or reporting purposes.

What are some things that would be possible with the API?

With this API you’ll be able to automate the creation and listing of side conversations from within your tickets. Some examples we’ve heard people are interested in:

Creating side conversations in a ticket based on events in your internal systems, such as an escalation to an external partner

Listing a ticket’s side conversations with additional information in a sidebar app

Export all side conversation data nightly to analyze with an internal BI tool

How do I sign up?

How do I get started?

Once you’re accepted into the EAP you can check out the developer documentation (access available after program acceptance) to learn the details of the API.

Do you have any plans for (x)?

We have a lot of plans and ideas for how the side conversations API could evolve, but if there is anything you'd like to see added please post about it here (one post per request is best!) so we can gauge interest among the community of beta participants.

@Nadiathe API doesn't affect macros, but we are also working on including recipients as part of macro configuration. It can even be a placeholder, so you'd be able to use something like a custom field on a ticket that has an email address for e.g. a partner to populate the macro recipient. If you'd like to try it out let me know!